a haven for fresh ingredients made into healthy and luscious meals!

About Terry Taylor

Nestled in the Valhalla mountain range of British Columbia, hugging the shore of Slocan Lake, I lead an interesting and passionate life. Cooking has been part of my life forever it seems. Perhaps the mystery of my grandmother's artful touch in creating her famous butter tarts crept into my soul. In any case, in addition to a fulfilling and stimulating professional career, cooking is at my core.

One of the pleasures I afford myself regularly is homemade granola. I make a batch every two weeks or so along with 2 litres of fresh homemade yogurt. Not much could be finer! Beckham, my Great Dane/Golden Lab was hard at work picking up wee bits of oats that hit the floor as I stirred the granola. He’s posing here, showing off his most-excellent-helpfulness-in-the-kitchen skills.

The granola recipe is one that my sister Laura and I have adapted over the years from a variety of recipes.

Here’s granola caught in process today. Nutmeg has just been grated in and the pecans and pumpkin seeds are added. Honey and oil are ready to be mixed.

Today was a busy day in the kitchen. As well as granola, I made a batch of Pumpkin-Apricot muffins. It’s that time of year when I am clearing out the freezer, so defrosting one of last fall’s packages of steamed pumpkin made for an easy muffin feast. Check out the recipe in the Muffins section!

Cooking is both a solo and a group activity for me. Alone, I cook listening to CBC. Time melts as the flow of cutting, chopping, mixing, rolling, grilling, baking and roasting takes over. Yet, cooking in tandem, or cooking with a team is an erstwhile pleasure too.

The process of creation parallels the art of processing. Food and thought are both birthed in these walls.

What to do with all the harvest from the garden is a recurrent summer theme.

Check out the new listing for one of my ultimate favourite soup recipes: Pear, Spinach and Stilton Soup. Yum! With its velvety texture, this soup is amazing as a meal on its own, or the precursor to a gourmet meal that follows.

August the 4th, 2011 is the date for the Pie Off. It’s at my place. My first pie-off.

Now… for those of you new to the tradition like me, here are the newly created, but highly official …

OfficialPie-Off Rules

Each guest must bring a pie – sweet or savoury. No looky-loos.

You can have your pie – and eat it too. That’s the rule.

The ideal number of pie-off participants is 12 — the largest number of slices a pie can be divided into without compromising its shape and texture.

Pie-off attendance is secret. Sotte voce. If you are invited, keep that invitation under wraps, to yourself. There’s not enough pie to go around. Too many people love pie.

Participants may enter both the Sweet and the Savoury competition.

It is a competition. Pies are hotly debated, championed, and tasted.

Each pie is divided into the number of slices of participants.

Proper pie-off protocols must be followed: Savoury pies to start, a light lettuce salad to cleanse the palate, followed by the sweet pie selections.

Everyone gets a vote and a slice of each pie. One vote per pie.

As the pie is tasted, the pie cook tells the story of the pie. Where the ingredients came from, the tale of the gathering or hunting for the pie innards, the labours that lead to the pie, the pie lore…

After all pies have been tried, the “off” part of the Pie Off begins. Votes are calculated for the winning pie in each of the two categories.

In reality, everyone’s a winner as we all eat a lotta pie and have a great time together!